Do It For Ernie
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
This Memorial Day I would like to see everyone who comes to the many Memorial Day parades to stand up when the U. S. flag goes by. I want you to do it for Ernie. Ernie Wallen from Pierceton, Ind.
A 1967 graduate of Pierceton High School and a young man who was drafted into the U.S. Army and died in Vietnam serving his country. Ernie was a tall young man who loved to play basketball and was from a family who was financially challenged. Ernie did not have many new items in has life, and like many families we all used hand-me downs of clothes and many things that were used by an older family member the previous year. He was a friendly, polite man and always had a smile on his face and always made the first step to be friendly with anyone he met.
He gave the ultimate sacrifice for his country, for you and for me. That sacrifice, that so many have made for all of our wars, were usually done by the poor and middle-class sons of poor and middle-class families. They asked for no parades or football fields be named in honor of them. They only ask that you respect the flag and country that they gave their lives defending.
So I ask each and everyone that remembers someone like Ernie, to get up out of those chairs and off the curbs and stand up for Ernie.
Lew Collier
Retired U. S. Army
PHS class of 68
Warsaw, via e-mail[[In-content Ad]]
This Memorial Day I would like to see everyone who comes to the many Memorial Day parades to stand up when the U. S. flag goes by. I want you to do it for Ernie. Ernie Wallen from Pierceton, Ind.
A 1967 graduate of Pierceton High School and a young man who was drafted into the U.S. Army and died in Vietnam serving his country. Ernie was a tall young man who loved to play basketball and was from a family who was financially challenged. Ernie did not have many new items in has life, and like many families we all used hand-me downs of clothes and many things that were used by an older family member the previous year. He was a friendly, polite man and always had a smile on his face and always made the first step to be friendly with anyone he met.
He gave the ultimate sacrifice for his country, for you and for me. That sacrifice, that so many have made for all of our wars, were usually done by the poor and middle-class sons of poor and middle-class families. They asked for no parades or football fields be named in honor of them. They only ask that you respect the flag and country that they gave their lives defending.
So I ask each and everyone that remembers someone like Ernie, to get up out of those chairs and off the curbs and stand up for Ernie.
Lew Collier
Retired U. S. Army
PHS class of 68
Warsaw, via e-mail[[In-content Ad]]
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